TV talk
I haven’t really discussed anything I’m watching lately, so let’s see how I do.
After talking about the Marvel ‘verse shakeup in the Cap movie with a couple of flisters, I pulled up the last three new episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on-demand and feel I’m now caught up enough to jump back in and watch to the end of the season. I do think they did a good job of incorporating the events in the movie into the series, and it peaked my interest enough to watch the remaining new episodes - in spite of the across-the-board eye-rolling character devotion to Princess Mary Sue, aka Skye. I mean, really? Whatevs.
Making Ward a Hydra sleeper agent renders him a lot more interesting than he’s ever been, IMO. At the same time, he appears to be under some kind of brainwashing by Garrett, and I’m guessing that’s going to be the showrunners’ out and the way they’ll keep Ward on the show - if they get renewed - and put back into Coulson's fold eventually. Though it sure would be a gutsy move if they left him as a Hydra agent.
Just by seeing the promos for the series over the last few weeks, I already assumed Paxton’s character would end up being a bad guy, and it appears I was right. Still, I like Bill Paxton, and I think it’s pretty cool that he got this gig. :) I’m interested to see how far they take his character in the remaining episodes.
The most anticipated new series for The Spousal Unit and myself is FX’s Fargo which premieres tonight at 10 pm. Woo-hoo! Fargo is one of my all-time favorite movies, and we’re huge fans of the Coen Brothers anyway. Plus, Billy Bob Thorton and Martin Freeman FTW!
This premiere comes on the heels of last week’s Justified season finale. Now that the decision has been made to end Justified after next season, I think they made an excellent call to move away from the bigger crime family/cartel story lines and go with a smaller, tighter, and more personal story to finish out the series, which is Raylan’s goal to take down Boyd Crowder before Raylan leaves to go to Florida to reconnect with Winona and his baby girl. After all, Boyd was never originally supposed to survive the pilot - but, Walton Goggins is all kinds of awesome, and he made Boyd such a rich and interesting character who became vital to the narrative.
But now it’s time for Raylan to eliminate Boyd as a Harlan County kingpin, and I think it will make for a strong final season.
The US SyFy version of Being Human ended it’s series run last week, and I was sad to see it go. I personally liked what the showrunners did with the US version, and IMO they ended the series on a much stronger and more satisfying note than either group of characters got in the UK series. Of course, the first group got really screwed when Aidan Turner left the series to work on The Hobbit, and Russell Tovey decided he didn’t want to do the series anymore without Aidan. So while the Annie character got some kind of an ending, it really wasn’t satisfying without her tie to the other characters.
The three new characters at least finished their run together, but, honestly, I was seriously meh on the way their story ended.
The only complaint I have with the US finale is that it felt rushed, even though apparently they knew the entire season that they were ending this year instead of next year, like was originally supposed to happen. But apparently the showrunners weren’t happy with SyFy slashing their budget for the fifth season, which seems to be a typical SyFy move, so opted to go out one year earlier. I think that’s why it felt rush. Still, I liked it and thought it was more satisfying than either of the UK finales.
Last night Warehouse 13 came back for their final 6-episode run, and that’s another SyFy series I’m going to miss. The network keeps letting go of the series I like, and keeping the ones I don’t - except for Haven, and with that one I’m not as high as I once was, at this point, given the changes to the Audrey character.
But Warehouse 13 has always maintained a fun and heartwarming air, because the characters always behaved more like a tight-knit family than a group of coworkers. And they’ve remained in-character to the end, which I appreciate.
I thought this back season of The Walking Dead worked surprisingly well with the storylines being smaller and laser-focused on a particular group of characters from week to week. It made the reunion in the train car at the very end all the more powerful, even without the threat of cannibalism hanging over their collective heads. You just felt now that they’re back together they can get out of this latest horror at Terminus intact, because they’re stronger as a group than they are individually. Of course, we’re still missing Carol and Tyrell, and have no idea what happened to Beth. But I’m sure they’ll come into play soon enough when the series returns next season.
We watched the premiere of the new AMC series Turn and have the second episode sitting on the dvr to catch up with. We’re going to give it a few episodes to see if it’s a keeper, but the first episode was interesting enough, we thought.
Sundays continue to be a pain in the ass, with more tv than there are viewing hours. So naturally this is the night WGN intends to premiere it’s foray into original programming with Salem, as if I don’t have enough to keep up with. I’m hoping I don’t like it so I don’t have to worry about it. LOL! ;D But I’ll check it out at least once.
Of course, Mad Men is back as well as Game of Thrones, among other series we keep up with. Though I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be tuning into GoT. The relentless Ramsey-Theon torture porn last year was the trigger to get me to stop watching live at that time, and only after The Spousal Unit vetted an episode for me would I catch it on-demand with my finger firmly planted on the FF button.
And that wasn't even all of it. The overarching theme of this show appears to have become torture in general - be it physical, psychological, emotional, or usually all three. It's everywhere, it's in practically every story, and I admit I'm wimping out, because I don't find that kind of storytelling appealing at all. It really bothers me.
I watched the season premiere live last week, then this last Sunday TSU said he'd just read a synopsis and thought I wouldn't want to watch live. So I didn’t, and, again, he vetted it for me, and in the morning told me point blank that I wasn't going to be able to watch any of the episode, except maybe five minutes - and even he was having a hard time watching anymore.
Of course, I'm glad that little sociopath Joffrey died, and the actor deserves all the accolades for portraying so well such a heinous character. But, sadly, the cruelty doesn't stop with him - not by a long shot. Ramsey is still around to torture Theon and branch out to others, apparently. And as a huge Tyrion fan, in particular, I just can't take the perpetual belittling, berating, and tormenting of his character anymore.
Can anyone who knows the books tell me if Tyrion gets out of this latest Cersei-pronounced predicament, and maybe hopefully gets away from his family entirely? Why doesn't Jamie help him - he doesn't seem to have the same problem with Tyrion that Cersei and Tywin do.
There are still parts of the overall story I'm interested in; but, like I said, I've gone full-on wimp about the other stuff that is so ingrained into the show, given Martin’s apparent freaking fetish for it. I'm watching with my hands over my eyes and fingers in my ears. *sigh*
I think I may have to wait until the end of the season, read all the reviews, and maybe go back and catch enough episodes on-demand to be current on the stories and characters I care about.
Without even seeing the episode, I'm laying my money on the Tyrell women as the killers of Joffrey. If so, yay! for them, especially my girl crush, Natalie Dormer. ;) Though what kind of position that leaves Margery in remains to be seen. I would guess she'd have no real power on her own, and that would be the best case against the Tyrell women as the culprits.
Anyway, that’s a little of what I keep up with. If I can muster the energy, I’ll make another post about some of the rest. ;)
I hear thunder in the distance. Looks like rain, and I just got a severe weather alert on my cell. Yikes!
After talking about the Marvel ‘verse shakeup in the Cap movie with a couple of flisters, I pulled up the last three new episodes of Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. on-demand and feel I’m now caught up enough to jump back in and watch to the end of the season. I do think they did a good job of incorporating the events in the movie into the series, and it peaked my interest enough to watch the remaining new episodes - in spite of the across-the-board eye-rolling character devotion to Princess Mary Sue, aka Skye. I mean, really? Whatevs.
Making Ward a Hydra sleeper agent renders him a lot more interesting than he’s ever been, IMO. At the same time, he appears to be under some kind of brainwashing by Garrett, and I’m guessing that’s going to be the showrunners’ out and the way they’ll keep Ward on the show - if they get renewed - and put back into Coulson's fold eventually. Though it sure would be a gutsy move if they left him as a Hydra agent.
Just by seeing the promos for the series over the last few weeks, I already assumed Paxton’s character would end up being a bad guy, and it appears I was right. Still, I like Bill Paxton, and I think it’s pretty cool that he got this gig. :) I’m interested to see how far they take his character in the remaining episodes.
The most anticipated new series for The Spousal Unit and myself is FX’s Fargo which premieres tonight at 10 pm. Woo-hoo! Fargo is one of my all-time favorite movies, and we’re huge fans of the Coen Brothers anyway. Plus, Billy Bob Thorton and Martin Freeman FTW!
This premiere comes on the heels of last week’s Justified season finale. Now that the decision has been made to end Justified after next season, I think they made an excellent call to move away from the bigger crime family/cartel story lines and go with a smaller, tighter, and more personal story to finish out the series, which is Raylan’s goal to take down Boyd Crowder before Raylan leaves to go to Florida to reconnect with Winona and his baby girl. After all, Boyd was never originally supposed to survive the pilot - but, Walton Goggins is all kinds of awesome, and he made Boyd such a rich and interesting character who became vital to the narrative.
But now it’s time for Raylan to eliminate Boyd as a Harlan County kingpin, and I think it will make for a strong final season.
The US SyFy version of Being Human ended it’s series run last week, and I was sad to see it go. I personally liked what the showrunners did with the US version, and IMO they ended the series on a much stronger and more satisfying note than either group of characters got in the UK series. Of course, the first group got really screwed when Aidan Turner left the series to work on The Hobbit, and Russell Tovey decided he didn’t want to do the series anymore without Aidan. So while the Annie character got some kind of an ending, it really wasn’t satisfying without her tie to the other characters.
The three new characters at least finished their run together, but, honestly, I was seriously meh on the way their story ended.
The only complaint I have with the US finale is that it felt rushed, even though apparently they knew the entire season that they were ending this year instead of next year, like was originally supposed to happen. But apparently the showrunners weren’t happy with SyFy slashing their budget for the fifth season, which seems to be a typical SyFy move, so opted to go out one year earlier. I think that’s why it felt rush. Still, I liked it and thought it was more satisfying than either of the UK finales.
Last night Warehouse 13 came back for their final 6-episode run, and that’s another SyFy series I’m going to miss. The network keeps letting go of the series I like, and keeping the ones I don’t - except for Haven, and with that one I’m not as high as I once was, at this point, given the changes to the Audrey character.
But Warehouse 13 has always maintained a fun and heartwarming air, because the characters always behaved more like a tight-knit family than a group of coworkers. And they’ve remained in-character to the end, which I appreciate.
I thought this back season of The Walking Dead worked surprisingly well with the storylines being smaller and laser-focused on a particular group of characters from week to week. It made the reunion in the train car at the very end all the more powerful, even without the threat of cannibalism hanging over their collective heads. You just felt now that they’re back together they can get out of this latest horror at Terminus intact, because they’re stronger as a group than they are individually. Of course, we’re still missing Carol and Tyrell, and have no idea what happened to Beth. But I’m sure they’ll come into play soon enough when the series returns next season.
We watched the premiere of the new AMC series Turn and have the second episode sitting on the dvr to catch up with. We’re going to give it a few episodes to see if it’s a keeper, but the first episode was interesting enough, we thought.
Sundays continue to be a pain in the ass, with more tv than there are viewing hours. So naturally this is the night WGN intends to premiere it’s foray into original programming with Salem, as if I don’t have enough to keep up with. I’m hoping I don’t like it so I don’t have to worry about it. LOL! ;D But I’ll check it out at least once.
Of course, Mad Men is back as well as Game of Thrones, among other series we keep up with. Though I’m not sure how much longer I’ll be tuning into GoT. The relentless Ramsey-Theon torture porn last year was the trigger to get me to stop watching live at that time, and only after The Spousal Unit vetted an episode for me would I catch it on-demand with my finger firmly planted on the FF button.
And that wasn't even all of it. The overarching theme of this show appears to have become torture in general - be it physical, psychological, emotional, or usually all three. It's everywhere, it's in practically every story, and I admit I'm wimping out, because I don't find that kind of storytelling appealing at all. It really bothers me.
I watched the season premiere live last week, then this last Sunday TSU said he'd just read a synopsis and thought I wouldn't want to watch live. So I didn’t, and, again, he vetted it for me, and in the morning told me point blank that I wasn't going to be able to watch any of the episode, except maybe five minutes - and even he was having a hard time watching anymore.
Of course, I'm glad that little sociopath Joffrey died, and the actor deserves all the accolades for portraying so well such a heinous character. But, sadly, the cruelty doesn't stop with him - not by a long shot. Ramsey is still around to torture Theon and branch out to others, apparently. And as a huge Tyrion fan, in particular, I just can't take the perpetual belittling, berating, and tormenting of his character anymore.
Can anyone who knows the books tell me if Tyrion gets out of this latest Cersei-pronounced predicament, and maybe hopefully gets away from his family entirely? Why doesn't Jamie help him - he doesn't seem to have the same problem with Tyrion that Cersei and Tywin do.
There are still parts of the overall story I'm interested in; but, like I said, I've gone full-on wimp about the other stuff that is so ingrained into the show, given Martin’s apparent freaking fetish for it. I'm watching with my hands over my eyes and fingers in my ears. *sigh*
I think I may have to wait until the end of the season, read all the reviews, and maybe go back and catch enough episodes on-demand to be current on the stories and characters I care about.
Without even seeing the episode, I'm laying my money on the Tyrell women as the killers of Joffrey. If so, yay! for them, especially my girl crush, Natalie Dormer. ;) Though what kind of position that leaves Margery in remains to be seen. I would guess she'd have no real power on her own, and that would be the best case against the Tyrell women as the culprits.
Anyway, that’s a little of what I keep up with. If I can muster the energy, I’ll make another post about some of the rest. ;)
I hear thunder in the distance. Looks like rain, and I just got a severe weather alert on my cell. Yikes!